FICTION
Until August
Gabriel García Márquez
Viking, $35

The Colombian Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) is the greatest Hispanic prose writer since Cervantes. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), a modern classic of magical realism, has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. However, he did not rest on his laurels, constantly experimenting with different modes of storytelling: the baroque, postmodernism, literary melodrama, historical biography, fictional autobiography and the erotic, among others.

A joke is circulating in Colombia that García Márquez, a noted prankster, decided to surprise the world with a novella composed on the other side of the grave: Until August, published to great fanfare in the Spanish-speaking world on March 6, almost 10 years after his death, on the date when he would have celebrated his 97th birthday. Translations in English and numerous other languages soon followed, with widespread coverage in traditional and social media.

The real story of the publication of Until August is long, complicated and poignant. The splendid English edition contains a prologue by García Márquez’s two sons, and a postscript by the editor, which together trace the origin of this novella of 107 pages to March 1999, whereupon the author shelved it.

When he returned to it in 2003-04, he was in remission from lymphatic cancer and struggling with dementia, so, in frustration, he ordered his sons to “destroy” the multiple drafts because “the book wasn’t getting anywhere”.

Subsequently, he changed his mind, telling his sons to do whatever they liked with his papers after his death, an instruction that relieved them of any ethical doubts about publishing Until August posthumously. The editor clarifies that he made only absolutely necessary emendations to García Márquez’s final version, whose literary merits or flaws belong to the author.

Under the circumstances, it does not surprise that Until August betrays some signs of its fraught genesis, with some repetitions, contradictions and occasional bland language. However, it possesses trademark García Márquez qualities, including a captivating plot, an intriguing protagonist, a disciplined structure, poetic descriptions, crisp dialogue, melodrama and intimations of magical realism.

The reader can sense the author’s smile as he transforms raunchy erotic encounters into parodies of scenes in telenovelas (lurid Latin American soap operas). Skilfully, he inserts cultural references that comment upon the novella’s themes. For example, an early mention of Bram Stoker’s Dracula foreshadows the gothic denouement, involving a coffin and bones, while Mozart’s Così fan tutte evokes the merry-go-round of infidelities in the story. Overall, this is a well-wrought, provocative and entertaining novella. Anne McLean’s translation is clear, fluent and captures the nuances of the original Spanish version.